


Ket is the worst

by Domoz



Category: Critical Hit (Podcast)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-05
Updated: 2015-03-16
Packaged: 2018-01-16 04:35:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1332094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Domoz/pseuds/Domoz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>5 different AU drabbles about Ket.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. ket looses his memories

You’ve lost, again.

You got back to the faywild and fought your way back to Spud. And then made the mistake of trying to speak with him first. As soon as you drew your weapons he jumped you with every nasty the faywild had to offer.

Everyone is down on their spirits, and rightly so. You’re just feeling okay that you got out alive again.

It’s already a given that you’re gonna go back- the natural world is even  _worse_  now. Even Trelle is discussing the idea getting an army together seriously now.

Inwardly, you sigh. They’re going to go at this again, which means so are you. It means this time there’s pretty much no way they’re getting out alive if they don’t win which means you have to pull out all the stops.

So as you travel around with them you consider just what those stops are- you start chatting about it with the challengers at the Alley, and while most of them are concerned they aren’t concerned enough to offer any help.

(The Summer King and the Raven Queen both have yet to show up, either)

You’re laying there one night, just thinking about it. And then you remember a name you heard what feels like ages ago.

You start going through your pockets and pull out a slip of paper that got passed to you literal years ago. It’s got one word on it.

Mnmoritz.

Its a name, all you’ve got to do is say it and spill a drop of blood and supposedly the thing will come and offer you ultimate power.

With, of course ,as you understand it, the ultimate sacrifice on your part. It always sounded like a junk deal to you, and it still does, but with the world in the way its in it couldn’t hurt to discuss, at least.

You wait until everyone is well and asleep, sneak past Orem’s room (as if it were hard) and up onto the roof of the inn you’re at.

You hold that slip in your hands, make a small cut in your finger say the name, and wait.

And then you hear a voice- vaguely effeminate and with it’s own echo. Certainly not the worst you’ve heard.

It says, “Don’t turn around, just explain what you want from me and I’ll show you what I can give you”

You talk into the night air about Spud and how he holds the power of the faewild and how you need to defeat him.

It says, “Oh, I have just the thing”

It says, “Not even a true pact, really more of a one time thing. I’ll give a certain power, you’ll have the chance to use it once, and when you do, I’ll exact my price”

You say, “What’s your price?”

It says, “When you use it, I’ll take your memories”

 

“If I never use that power?”

“Then I never exact my price. You may  _die_  without ever using it. And that’s fine”

You frown. This is probably one of the better deals you’ve heard of. And it seems straightforward, too.

You say, “That’s it?”

“That’s it”

“Then” you say, “I accept”

It says “Very well”

Then the slip of paper in your hands burns up and where it was your fingers tingle with energy. You don’t feel terribly different. But then, you don’t think you’re supposed to.

You go back to your room- pleased that you have that option at your disposal now. You hope you don’t have to  _use_  that option- but you know if it comes down to it, you will.

So you pull out a piece of parchment and begin to write things down.

-

When you go into the faywild this time there’s nothing subtle about it, Randus built a machine to punch through and you march in with people at your backs.

Spud meets you not long after you walk in. He says, “I’ve had enough of you! You’re not going to escape just to come back and wreck things this time, you know!” and moves to attack.

So do you.

-

You pull out all the stops.

-

There’s a group of people in the faywild, lying together in a bloody mess, but still, somehow, alive.

(Near them is a hunk of twisted cold iron and crystal)

Slowly they start to wake up, and look at each other and smiles start to come to their faces.

And then one wakes up, and he doesn’t smile or laugh but looks at these people and narrows his eyes and starts backing away, slowly. He’s hurt, but he still manages to stand up- feels his hand reaching towards something and finds that there’s a whip there.

You say, “ Please explain to me who you are, where this is, and what I’m doing here”

They look at you, the one with long blonde hair and a gash on his face says, “What?”

You’re not stupid, you can see what’s on their face is concern, not anger. One of them- looks human but with a weird arm stands up and starts walking towards you- you back up, say “Whoa, whoa. Tell me who you are first. Please.”

He looks back to the rest of his group- the blond one- eladrin- takes a breath to speak but the girl- elf- stops him with a hand on his shoulder and then looks right at you. She says “My name’s Trelle. What’s your name?”

You open your mouth to say, and then shut it because nothing comes to mind.  _Nothing_. You say, “Uh… It’s… It’s, ah….”

She closes her eyes, sighs.

Says, “ _Oh, no_ ”

They look between themselves, back at you. She says, voice shaky, “Well, like I said, I’m Trelle. This is Orem. That’s Torq, and he’s Randus”

Everyone looks supremely uncomfortable as she gestures at them, then you.

“And You’re Ket”

-

You walk with them, away from this apparent battlefield and let them try to explain everything to you. You don’t get it- you don’t know who Spud was, or where the Cerulean Academy is or why your in the faywild.

In fact you don’t know who or where  _anything_ is. And that’s not as disorienting as it should be.

You walk with your hands in your pockets, and feel a piece of parchment that you pull out and unfold as your walking. It says this:

  1. These people- Orem (Eladrin), Trelle (Elf), Torq (the big one), Randus (Human) are your friends and allies

  2. You made a pact with Mnmoritz. If you used the power from them you lost your memories.

  3. You were fighting a gnome named Spud who had taken control of the faywild. If you’re still alive that means you probably won




It’s written in what registers with you as your own handwriting and it makes about as much sense as anything else you’ve heard today. You walk up next to Orem (Eladrin) and show it to him- he reads it over- closes his eyes and takes a sharp breath.

You’re not sure why, but you feel guilty.

He asks, “Can I take this?”

You shrug. He walks up to Randus (Human) and he reads it too, then looks over at you.

Randus (Human) says “Um. If you wouldn’t mind traveling with us for a while I think we can maybe work out something to get your memories back”

That sounds like as good of a plan as you have right now. Another shrug and a “sure” from you.

-

When you rest that night you pull off your boot and another note comes out. This one says

  1. just stick with these guys, they’re your family.




You keep that one to yourself.

-

You make your way back to the natural world, and when you see the devastation there you kind of start to understand why exactly it was you were in the faywild to begin with. Trelle tells you that what was happening there caused a bunch of problems here, and that they got really bad.

She says, “I want to go check on my family”

They look among themselves and nod and you guess you’re going with them, too.

(You see Orem pull Randus aside and say something and Randus mutters something back and they look at you with a concerned look on their faces)

-

At one point while your on the road you realize you should check to see what’s in your pack. The first thing that catches your eye is the hairy orange monstrosity that opens one eye and then hands you a note.

This one says:

5\. This is Zal’Gai’S . He’s your familiar, and also entirely unhelpful

6\. You’re in this thing called the Kolbold Alley Tournament, where you play games with souls as the wagers. You have a lot of souls. Zal’Gai’S can explain that to you.

You ask and he says in some screeches and hisses that you’re not sure how you understand that you probably shouldn’t worry about it for now, since you’re not in a game at the moment.

-

They don’t ask you to take watch, but you’re not tired.

You go through your things for more notes but don’t find anymore.

You look up to see Orem looking back at you, kind of frowning.

You say, “What’s up?”

He tilts his head, furrows his eyebrows. Says, “You really don’t remember anything? At all?”

You say, “Nope”

You really hate the sad look that they give you. You can’t remember anything, sure, but pitying you about it won’t help anything.

He breaks eye contact.

“You and I” he says, “Have had some… moments. You don’t recall anything at all?”

He just gets quieter and quieter as he goes on.

You hate the feeling of guilt in your gut you get, too. You frown.

“I’m really trying to remember, I am. I wish I remembered all of you guys, it seemed like i really liked you.”

He closes his eyes and bows his head again

“Right”

-

Trelle’s family was fine- you all helped out a bit there and then you’re all moving out again. You don’t bother asking where you’re going because you know you won’t have any idea where it is.

It starts to get frustrating- you ask Trelle if she can tell you anything about your family and she looks like you’ve just kicked a puppy in front of her, as sad as she gets.

She says, “Oh, Ket… You were never very open with us. I can’t really tell you anything, I’m sorry”

-

You get to some… library. A big one. There are some issues getting inside, but everyone does.

They’re talking among themselves- and they start to walk off and you have to say “Wait”

You have to say, “What are we looking for?”

Orem says, “Well…”

He says, “We’re looking for information on Mnmoritz”

He sighs, and you raise your eyebrows and follow them as they turn around to go.

These people are going after the thing that, you guess, has your memories. You never asked them but they’re taking this as serious as you’ve ever seen them.

(You can definitely see why you had called these people your family. You guess you still  _do_  call them your family, especially now)

-

It’s not hard to find information at all- apparently this guy gives out power pretty freely and at a pretty steep price.

(They look for caveats and loopholes and past examples of people making deals but there really aren’t a lot. This thing is straightforward as something that makes pacts can be)

So they go down to a basement, a storage room of black stone and Orem slices open his hand with his sword and says “Mnmoritz.”

Your throat is tight and everyone looks about as worried as you feel.

This time it appears in front of you- long blue face, white robes and horns that form a full circle around it’s head.

They all step in front of you, they get between you and  _it_.

When it speaks it sounds  _so so familiar_.

Orem bows it’s head to it, says, “Well, I’m going to be straightforward with you. We want to get Ket’s memories back.”

You feel your heart squeeze has he says this, and feel it drop as the creature smiles.

Mnmoritz says, “A simple deal, one time. I’ll take a portion- I wont lie, a rather sizable one, of each of your souls- and your friend there will get his memories back.”

He says, “I see. Please give us a moment”

They all turn away from him, look at each other, pensive.

Trelle says, “I’m not sure”

Torq shakes his head.

Randus says, “Well. I’ve kind of come to understand that souls can kind of … grow back so long as there’s something left”

You feel this mounting horror in the pit of your stomach. They’re looking at each other.

They’re actually considering this. They’re willing to do this, to loose a part of their souls.

For you.

You can’t find any words to say to them, to stop them. But you do have an idea.

You step around Torq and walk up to the creature and they immediately turn around towards you. You say, “ I have a better idea. All of my souls up for all of my memories. One game. Leave them out of it”

Mnmoritz smiles, says, “very well”

You hear everyone take a sharp intake of breath, to try to stop you, and then it snaps and then they’re gone.

-

You’re in a different room, there’s a table.

It says, “What game will you wager this all over, then?”

You pull a box of cards out of your pocket, the first thing that comes out of your mouth is “Twin Cities”

It nods.

You realize that you don’t remember how to play.

(At least, you decide, they’re ok. You guess you ought to have said goodbye)

When you pull the deck out of the box a piece of parchment flutters down. You pick it up and look at it.

It says:

  1. Good Luck




You don’t know where seven through nine are, but this is the one you need right now.

Really, really need right now.

-

They wait around in that room for what feels like ages.

After the first hour they’re holding hands, the second they’ve sat down. None of them want to bring it up. None of them want to ask how long they should wait for him.

The third hour Orem takes a deep breath.

“I hope” he says, “he’s ok”

The forth hour they’re silent

Until someone very familiar says

“You know, you guys never mentioned to me how big of an asshole I am”

They all stand up and look at him in shock- there’s Ket H’zard, leaning on a wall and examining his fingernails.

Trelle is the first over to you- you manage to keep standing as she attaches herself to you. Orem and Randus are hardly over to you before Torq grabs the whole lot of you and lifts you off the ground.

When you’re put back down you have to wipe your eyes.

(Because you did it, you won and your family is back and they’re as happy as you are)

Trelle is babbling on , asking if you remember the Summer King and the Fen of Winters and you keep nodding because you do remember.

For the first time in what feels like ages, you remember them all.


	2. ket looses his memories

There’s this grand stone door and the five of you are standing right outside of it.

Its not a surprise, you’ve gone through four just before.

It’s this strange labyrinth. You need some magic thing that’s been hidden in the middle and to get through you have to pass these tests; it’s something about proving the strength of your soul.

Which has you nervous, because you’re wondering exactly  _which_ soul is going to be tested. And you’ve all already noticed that the tests are getting harder as you’ve been going. And they’ve all been completely different , too so you don’t know what to expect.

You’re the last one to go.

The door opens. Trelle hooks her fingers in the bracelet she gave you and says “good luck”.

The others nod at you in turn. There’s a lump in your throat that’s nothing but nerves as you nod back.

You step through.

-

You know, in the very back of you head that you’ve only been like this for moments, but everything else you know screams that you’ve been like this for  _days._

Although it takes you a long amount time (you can’t tell how long, really) to get your bearings.

You’re on a stone floor. You have handcuffs on. Your pack is gone. You can’t see out of your left eye that well, and everything else is kind of a dull ache.

The mark on the back of your neck feels cold and hot all at once and it  _hurts._

 _Something_  grabs you by the scruff of the neck and picks you up.

You can’t decide whether this thing is a demon or a devil. Whatever it is is speaking to you. It says, “ _We have a deal for you”_

It says, “ _It is a simple one. You lead those others to this place. We will consume them, and you will be set free”_

You say, “What?” because your mind is still processing this. Then you say, “No”

You say “Hell no”

And that things says “ _You will be a fun one to break”_

You think it’s smiling as it forcibly throws you onto the ground.

You’re head doesn’t hit the ground, but your shoulder does, and you feel the sharp pain of what you know was something breaking.

And as you gasp the thing  _stomps on you_. You actually hear a sickening noise come from your shoulder.

You don’t even manage to scream as all the air is pushed out of you. The only noise you manage is weak whimper. And this thing comes down on you again, and again and your vision starts to get spotty not only from that pain but from the fact that you can’t  _breath_.

And quite suddenly its gone

As carefully as you can you roll onto your back. Except to do that you have to move your shoulder which you’d really prefer had been cut off right now. You bite your own lip so not to make noise

And you  _try_ to go through this logically. You  _try_ to figure out how you’ve gotten here but everything you can remember right now is hazy.

You finally get your breathing back to normal. And you think. Your legs seem to be fine,comparatively. Your chest hurts but its not awful enough to keep you from moving. Both of your arms, especially your shoulders are nothing but pain and there’s that constant cold heat on the back of your neck.

So you do this: you slowly and gently as you can you get on your knees and sit up. Unfortunately it’s too dark to see much of anything (and you have to close the one eye to focus on anything at all).

You look at your own legs. Something drips onto them but you can’t see well enough to decide whether or not that’s water or blood. You don’t suppose it matters, at this point.

You breath in. You breath out. You try to stand up, which you know is a mistake because as soon as you try you’re lying on the ground again, head spinning as something flashes out of the darkness to swipe at your legs.

You hit your head because of this and the impact sends a pain down your whole spine.

You grunt

You actually do feel something on your face, it’s warm. If you could sigh you would.

You hope you  _at least_  pass out from blood loss soon.

 

The thing leaves you alone for what seems like a very long time. You find , beyond that pain, that you’re very tired, and very thirsty.

You find it very hard to focus, but you try. You try and think. You wonder  _why do they want them?_

At which point something comes down with crushing force on your chest. And there’s a lot of cracking noises and a sharp explosive pain which is your chest. Your  _whole_ chest.

You can barley wheeze, much less scream.

The face of that thing appears above you, where you can just barley see it.

It says, “ _You will live like this, forever. You will be in agony until you Take the deal”_

It waits for you to speak-and this takes you a while.

You breath in, breath out. You’re pretty certain one of your ribs in in your lung. You say “Fuck off”

The creature still smiles as it disappears.

And you are left alone again, trying simply to survive.

The room seems to alternate between burning hot and freezing cold, the mark on your neck always feels the opposite.

You never get to the point of delirium. As tired as you are you never fall asleep or pass out.

(If you had anything but pain left in you you would suspect theres magic keeping you awake. But there is nothing but pain left)

You are aware of how hard it is to breath, at all times.

And you’re so thirsty.

You have absolutely no idea how much time has passed at this point. As you lie there it seems to take forever.

As you are suddenly scooped up by a clawed hand and pinned to a wall its seems like it was hardly any time at all.

“W _hy_ ” hisses the thing” _do you do this to yourself. You have the option to walk out of here right now.”_

You hear it but you can’t reply because your vision is nothing but bright pin pricks and your lungs are all blood.

It says “ _I grow impatient”_

It says” _Why do you defend them so? They expect you to be their betrayer”_

You finally have enough air in you to laugh. Your throat is raw and dry as you say, “That’s exactly why I _won’t_ betray them. I’ll die this way- eventually you’ll go to far and I’ll die because I didn’t betray them and that’s the biggest  _fuck you_  I can think of”

You’re lightheaded just from those words. The creature drops you to the floor with a  _thump_  and though there is a shooting pain you can’t distinguish it from anything else that’s happening to you at this point.

You are left alone again, though not for very long. You feel these small things starting to crawl on you. They start to cut slashes through your coat and through your skin and you don’t have the strength to open your eyes.

And you are aware of it all.

You’re thirsty

You hear the thing, it asks “ _if what you want to do is send them that message then why do you hold out for them?_ ”

You can’t really think anymore- you can hardly talk, either. But you manage to whisper something

You breath in. You say, “Because they’re important”

You breath. You say “Probably the most important people in the world”

You feel it’s face come close to yours.

You say, “They’re my fucking _family_. And you can’t touch them”

You feel the claws of the thing go under your chin, lift your head- you’re powerless to to anything.

It says “ _A tough nut to crack indeed_ ”

And you remain like that for a moment (the creature is considering something, not that you can tell)

It says, “ _Any last words_?”

You think. You breath. You say, “Tell Gai I said thanks”

And the thing begins to laugh, and laugh.

It says, “ _All of those souls within you withstood even this. Well done_ ”’

-

You hear a door open, and a lot of running and suddenly there are a lot of voices around you and you can’t understand a word of what they’re saying.

And then there are hands on you and bright flashes of more pain followed by numbness.

You work very hard at it and manage to open your eyes- and thank god they’re all standing there over you arguing amonst themselves about how to keep you from dying.

You aren’t sure how, but you say “Good to see you’re alright”

And Trelle says, “ _We’re_ alright? You’re-!”

You don’t know what cuts her off.

You can’t do much more than blink as Randus stabs something into your arm.

Breath in, “I didn’t make the deal. So you’re alright”

You guess you’re probably smiling, that’s what it feels like. Everyone seems to be doing everything they can to you. You don’t know what happens next except that Torq picks you up.

Finally, thankfully, you pass out.


	3. ket joins kobold alley

It used to be fun- you were always good at reading people, and always in need of more cash. Gambling was the easiest thing for you to turn to. And you were good at it, too. You always ended up with more money than you started with, and you didn’t even cheat.

Not that people didn’t suspect you of it. You’ve been chased out of bars more than once, and tonight is one of those nights.

It’s pretty quiet out on the streets, all the activity is mostly stuck to places like the one you just got kicked out of. You consider finding another place but figure that you made enough gold in the last one before you had to bolt. So, you’re heading home.

The only other people about are either determinedly heading to their shady meet-ups or stumbling about drunk. Ordinarily you wouldn’t worry about them, but there’s this one guy that’s been lurching after you for a few blocks now. You suspect he knows how much gold you have lining your pockets.

Unfortunately for him, you’re a good fighter and you happen to know the streets of this part of the city backwards and forwards. You figure, hey, this guy needs a good lesson not to mess with you. So you go down an alley, sidle up by some boxes, lean on them, and wait.

This was your first mistake.

You hear him stumble around the corner- you ready yourself to jump him. And he’s on you lightning fast, has you pinned the the wall by your neck with some inhuman strength before you can even move to hit him.

Your first priority now is breathing, because that really hurts and there’s definitely going to be bruises.

Second priority is how this –  _thing_  – looks up at you and you see its sunken in eyes and sharpish teeth and it occurs to you that, whatever it is, its not human and you really wish you had noticed  _that_  before.

Third is when it starts moving its mouth and noises come out that aren’t words- it hurts your ears and your head and your teeth to listen to it.

Then it clears its throat and tries again and it’s in common, this time, but it’s mouth isn’t synching up with the words.

It says, “You fancy yourself a gambling man?”

You’re so frozen in terror that it takes the thing grabbing your throat even tighter before you feebly nod to get it to stop.

It says, “Well I saw what you did in there. Good stuff! So I’m gonna recruit you”

This was the stuff your mom had warned you about when you got into gambling. The shady gangs that you had told her not to worry about because you’re not an  _idiot, of course you’re not going to get involved with that stuff._  And well, you guess its not that simple.

It says, “You ever heard of the kobold ally?”

Lets go of you just enough for you to shake your head

Says, “Thats fine, they’ll explain it to you when you show up. I’m just gonna be your patron, is all. Hows that sound?”

You think it sounds awful but you nod with the hope that he’ll let you go.

That was your second mistake.

It says, “Great!” and then you feel the sort of tinging in your fingers and chest and in the back of your head that you know is magic and are suddenly very very afraid of what you’ve gotten yourself into.

And then it drops you, and as its walking away you think you hear it say, “See you there!”

Then its gone and nothing more seems to happen. You sit where you were, dropped shaking and dizzy and frightened until another drunkard stumbles past you and you jump up to your feet.

You… you really want to be home right now. Or really anywhere but here.

So you stand and steady yourself on some boxes and start trying to walk back. But there’s this mounting dread behind you the drives you into something more like a jog and even though there’s no one else on the street you find yourself nearly running back to where your mom and sister are sleeping.

(Normally you’d take the back way but the front way is closer and you really would rather not)

Your hands are actually shaking as you go to open the door- and you step through and shut the door and lean back on it and there’s a sigh of releif

And then it hits you that this isn’t your house. You look behind you and realize that there’s not even a door behind you anymore and it’s all you can do not to fall to your knees a shaking mess.

Because now you’re in a long dark hallway and at the end of it there’s a spotlight on what looks like a man with a fishbowl for a head. It beckons for you to come and it sit in the chair in front of it.

(To your credit you manage to make it all the way over there without stumbling over yourself, though you do basically collapse in the seat)

This one says, “Ket H’zard?”

You nod. At least this one doesn’t have a mouth for the words to be out of time with.

It says, “Welcome to Kolbold Alley”

-

So you get the rules explained to you. You’re going to be gambling, like you’ve been doing for a while now, except what you’re wagering is souls.

Pretty straightforward. Also, pretty terrifying.

You are told that now that you’re in the alley, there’s no backing out.

You’re informed that since your patron isn’t very high up in the ranks that you can still be challenged reasonably frequently. That you actually have someone waiting to play a game with you right now and should get going.

You’re directed towards a door.

-

There’s a hideous infernal thing inside, sitting across a table from you.

There’s a deck of cards.

You’re playing the very same game you just won at the tavern.

It really  _should_  be easy- because once you figure out where it’s face  _is_  you can see how obvious it’s tells are and you know how to play this game really well anways.

But.

You’re nervous, you fumble more than once and as hard as you try to keep a poker face you can feel yourself slip on more than one occasion.

This demon doesn’t make a noise, you don’t even  _try_ to communicate with it.

And. In the end, through some miracle you win by the skin of your teeth. You see it look up at you in an expression you can only guess at.

Then it says, “Damn”

And something horrible happens to it- it twists in on itself until all that’s left is a sort of vapor that then flows right into you. It doesnt’ even react as you swat your hands through it and it finds your way in between your ribs into your chest and there’s that tingling of magic again except there’s a  _lot_  of it. And, after you gasp for a while, it’s over.

Your chest _hurts,_  it feels like there’s more…  _stuff_  in there than there should be and the pressure of it is pushing on your ribs and making it hard to breath.

But. You won. Which you guess means that you get to go free.

-

You don’t. You’re put into game after game, told that , of course people are going to challenge you, you’re the new kid that they all think they can beat, and that your patron is notorious for recruiting people and forcing them to play all their challengers, anyways.

You do end up facing some more humanoid looking things- some actual  _humans._  And the same things happens when you beat them, too.

(You’re killing them, when you win, but if you don’t win you’re going to die. You want to throw up)

You eventually pass the point of nervousness till you’re shakiness comes mostly from exhaustion.

You don’t loose a single game. You don’t think you  _can_ or else you’re going to die.

And then the next door you stumble through is into your home; finally, finally you’re at _home_  and your sister looks up at you from a chair, surprised and your mother is very suddenly right in your face, yelling at you.

She says she was worried. That you were gone for  _two days_  without a word and  _we thought we were going to find you dead in a ditch._

She’s asking  _where were you? Where have you been_? And at this point you fall to your knees and put your arm over your face because you’re still absolutely terrified and you’re tired and your chest hurts and your throat still hurts too, like hell ,and you don’t  _know_  where you’ve been, you really don’t.

Though at least your mom isn’t questioning you anymore, she’s knelt down by you and pulled you into a hug and you guess that’s your sister’s hand on your back.

And she says, “You look exhausted. I think you can tell us about it tomorrow”

You just nod because your breath is still hitching- they share a look and then help you up and lead you to your bed where, despite the pain in your chest and the dread that’s still lurking you’re dozing off within the minute

You don’t know what god to pray to about stuff like this, so you send one out, to anyone that might be listening.

You pray that you’re not as in over your head as you feel.


	4. ket tells the truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> fic prompt: ket is forced to tell the truth for some ~magic~ reason

No one knows what caused it, honestly.

What happened was this: That morning Trelle had been walking next to Ket in the hallway and had asked how his sleep was. He had said, “Not great” and then stopped dead where he was walking and made a face filled with confusion and distaste.

And she has asked, “Is something wrong?” and he had said “Yes” and immediately started backing away towards his room.

She caught him by the arm, asked him “ _What’s_  wrong?”

He had jerked away, bolted back past his door, and she’d heard him say as panicked as she’d ever heard him, “I’ve gotta tell the truth” before he slammed the door shut.

Which has led everyone to this point, gathered outside Ket’s door. And it’s Trelle again, yelling through the wood, “Are you alright?”

And everyone strains to hear him. He says, “No”

So- the party argues amongst themselves. On what they should ask him. On if they should ask anything at all.

And they know they have to take advantage of this, while it’s here. So Torq jiggles the handle a little too hard and pushes open the door- which takes some doing, actually because Ket is leaning against it trying to keep anyone from getting in.

Though it doesn’t take much to push the opening wide enough for Trelle to squeeze though, and at that point he gives up trying to stop them getting in.

Instead he moves so that is back is at the wall, completely pale, and completely poker faced.

Trelle again, asking, accusatory “You don’t want to tell us the truth, do you?”

And his face stays the same but his whole body just slumps till he’s sitting on the floor, knees between him and them.

He says, “No”

Trelle looks back at the rest of the party, then to again. “But you have to answer?”

There’s not even a strain in his voice, it’s just a monotone, “Yes”

She sighs, furrows her brow. Starts with, “Well,then”

Asks, “What’s the deal between you and Asmodeus?”

Ket is the kind of guy to maintain eye contact, usually, but right now he’s looking hard at the ceiling. He says, “He’s my patron”

And makes it clear right then and there what kind of conversation this is going to be. He knows his way around words enough to make the truth vague. And they know they’re going to have to get pointed with their questions if they want to learn anything.

So Trelle says,” Not that. I mean what does he want from you? From us?”

And he replies, “I don’t know”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I don’t  _know_ ”

And there at the end he let it slip, his voice a little to loud, his eyes a little too wide and the moment the words are out of his mouth he slumps back on the wall again, closes his eyes.

And a lot of the questioning goes like that. There’s so much about the Alley, and about Asmodues and about a lot else that he can only respond to with a shrug.

The problem starts to happen when, by accident, really the questioning gets more personal.

It’s Torq, asking, “What did you do before yous met us, anyhow?”

He says, “I hunted monsters”

And the line of questioning that goes off of that is relatively predicable.

They find out that that was more or less the reason he was in Shallai. That he hunted them with another group.

Except for a few slips he’d managed to keep the straight face and toneless voice this whole time. But the question gets asked, “What happened to them?”

And the poker face slips, completely, to one of sheer pain and hurt. He swallows hard, says, “They were killed”, and his voice nearly breaks at the end of that just those three words.

Ket looks like he’s trying to force himself through the wall as hard as his head is pushed against it. His hand has moved up over his eyes and for a good 30 seconds everyone can hear him breath and hear his breath catch.

And the questioning goes on, it’s Orem who furrows his brow, asks, “What monster?”

(And it’s Randus who puts his hand on Orem’s shoulder and stares him in the eyes with a look that tells him to Stop.)

And they can hear the tightness in his throat as he mumbles out some long string of demonic sounding syllables.

Without even looking at each other they decide to change subject.

They ask about why he hates the faywild so much. What his situation with the raven queen was. About his family.

All of those lines end poorly and by the end of it Ket has shoved himself into a corner and put his hand over his mouth to muffle the answers he has to give.

It’s Randus, again, who steps in between them and Ket. Who says, “We should stop. I think we should stop.”

And they all nod, but Trelle. Who says, “Just one more”

Who says, “Ket. Ket, I know you like to shut yourself off and all but I just really want to know. Do you consider us your friends?”

His voice breaks then, completely. They all see him nod.

And then Trelle steps around Randus, and slides her back down the wall until she’s sitting next to him. One by one, first Randus, then Torq, then finally Orem do the same. And slowly the shuddering breaths start to sound normal, there’s no more hitching there. After a minute, after two minutes he just gives one last, huge sigh.

-

Then there’s the next day, which is much more quiet than normal because he’s hanging towards the back of the group, not talking much and still not looking at any of them.

It’s Randus again, always concerned, who asks him if he’s alright. Ket says, “Yeah”

(He’s not alright, but he does understand that he’s kind of a hard guy to trust. And he wishes those bad memories of his hadn’t been dredged up again but at least the only one who got hurt in all this was himself).

He’s not alright, but he can lie, now.


	5. ket cries, sometimes

There’s this thing about Ket. He hasthis larger-than-life quality about him; even when he’s not, he always seems to be in control. He knows what he’s doing.

 

He doesn’t  _loose._

 

That is, until he does.

 

It’s morning, at an inn. He’s not down for breakfast, which is odd, because on a normal day he’s the first one up, after you.

There’s his Alley thing, you know, so you go to check to see if he’s even  _there_.

He is. He’s awake, even, but hunched over on the edge of his bed with his face in his hands. Shaking. Somthing’s wrong.

 

So you call out “Ket”, and he looks up at you ever so slowly. His eyes are rimmed red; he looks exhauseted. He looks  _sick._

 

So you say, “Are you feeling alright?”

And you watch him. He can’t even bring himself to lie and say tht he’s fine.

( He usually doesn’t, you think, despite how he’d want you to think so).

So you go and you sit by him and you wait.

He looks away from you with downcast eyes and he waits, too.

 

You ask, “What happened?”

His sigh is ragged. He says, “How much have I told you about Kobold Alley?”

Not a lot, but enough, “The place you disapear off too? Where you gamble with souls?”

He nods. And he says, “I lost a game”

 

Well it’s no wonder, then, that he looks this bad. You really dont have much of an idea what it’s like to loose a soul, but based on what you’re seeing it’s nothing pleasant.

“…how badly?”

“Bad”

He presses the heel of his plams to his eyes, hunches over on himself.

You put a hand on his shoulder, but you don”t know what to say.

 

He does. He says, “I should be dead. I really should be”, and his voice does this little waver that makes your heart tighten.

When he looks up there are tears pricking the corners of his eyes, but he seems too worn to cry, outright.

 

To you this is so  _strange._  Because it’s Ket. Because it’s never even occurred to you that something could actually  _hurt_ him. That he could be broken.

The idea is honestly a bit terrifying.

So you do the thing you know helped you when you were hurting and you pull him in so his head is resting on your shoulder, and he lets you, which confirms to you that this is bad.

 

He’s still shaking a bit, though from what you can’t tell. You do all you can do, rub cicles on his back, until his breathing is a bit more normal, until you hear the others start to move around nd he looks up. He still looks weary but there’s some light back in his eyes, now.

His voice is still hoarse but he looks at you and says, ‘Thank you”

And he’s being sincere, from what you can tell.

 

It’s strange to think you’d be abe to help Ket, of all people, but hes here, alive, and as of yet unbroken.

 

You say , “ Anytime.”


End file.
